A simulation approach for corrosion-fatigue behaviour of metallic structures considering coupling effect

This study proposes a numerical simulation implementing a cellular automaton model to analyse corrosion–fatigue behaviour considering the coupling effect. A cellular automaton (CA) system was developed to obtain the corroded surface during the corrosion–fatigue process. Regarding surface morphology, CA system accuracy is verified by comparing the surface roughness parameters with those obtained from the corrosion experiments. Then, eleven surface groups were established with the CA system. The surface evolution during the corrosion process was simulated with ABAQUS. A fatigue damage evolution model is employed based on the continuum damage mechanics (CDM) by means of a user-subroutine USDFLD in ABAQUS to simulate the fatigue damage accumulation. The fatigue damage accumulation and the corrosion development can be considered simultaneously with the proposed method; thus, the coupling effect between corrosion and fatigue can be well simulated. The method proposed is verified by considering corrosion–fatigue coupling test results, and the fatigue damage and stress distribution during the corrosion–fatigue loading are analyzed. The proposed method can provide an effective tool for evaluating corrosion–fatigue damage and predicting corrosion–fatigue life.